Kate's Artwork: February 2015

I called my artwork “Welcome to New York”. My montage is based on my first trip to New York. Throughout my work I used a lot of fading in my large pictures and contrasting on my small pictures because I wanted the people viewing my montage to focus on the small photos rather than the large ones. I also blended my eye picture with the background, to make my montage look creative. My main idea for this assignment, were to find photos that describe New York and my trip. Also pictures that were my style as well, and my style is usually dark and simple. I didn’t really have any influences throughout my montage, I just kind of followed myself. To me when I see my montage the first photo I focus on, is the large black and white picture of my friend Gabe on the right, it then makes my eyes move lower to the pictures below to the blended photos. My personal motivation for this assignment was simply the music I was listening too. I know its kind of weird to say but I was listening to a lot of indie music which inspired me to make my pictures simple, because indie to me means simple. In my opinion, I believe that what I did successful was my fading. and my ability to place my photos in a way that the viewer could move their eyes around. I could improve on the proportion on size. Make the pictures different a different proportion from others.

-Kate Delas Armas

Brainstorm

left early morning
arrived in New York late
with 10 people
met my aunt and uncle
went to times square
took wrong bus

Welcome to New York

The sun barely up, my eyes barely open, I opened my Ipod and it says its 5 o'clock, time to get up my mom says, time to hit the road she finishes. I put on jeans and a red Hollister Co. sweater, I wanted to be as comfy as I could be, I mean after all I will be staying in a cramped car for 12 hours. I took a small step outside the door and a shot of cool air hit me, its summer. I walked to our van with a pillow and a blanket in my hand, our first stop was Tim Hortons where we will meet up with our good friends The Catelos, they consists of a mother and a father, 2 daughters and 2 sons, they will be with us traveling to our destination. Dad ordered the usually, 1 large double double to get him through the day, mom ordered french vanilla just enough caffeine to last through the car ride. We all got into our cars and headed for New York.

"We're here", I opened my eyes to what I thought would be bright lights and loud noises, but instead I woke up to quiet noises and a big building called "Holiday Inn". Are we in New York? was my first thought. It turns out we were staying a bit farther from Times Square, however I didn't care I was still in New York! Later that evening we all went to visit my Aunt who lives not far away from our hotel. She told us she would take us to Times Square and give us a tour of New York. I was very excited, the only time I have seen New York was from movies and online pictures. She took us to the bus station where we would take the 17th bus all the way to another bus stop and then take the 14th bus to the subway or underground train station where it would lead us to Times Square. I hoped on the dark blue bus and it was as full as a chicken farm, the bus smelt like leather and sweat ( a smell i would never forget), and there were no seats I had to stand for the most part, I was very uncomfortable. Once we got into the second bus I knew there would be no seats available so like the first bus I stood holding the pole. The bus dropped us off at the subway station and after we took the next subway to Times Square! All I could think of was all the beautiful lights, big buildings, and all of those shopping stores. I was so excited!
We got off of the subway and went up the stairs which lead us to the pavements of Times Square. I quickly learnt that the people in New York are always on the move. Everyone was just walking super fast, I couldn't stand it! I just stayed close to my group. I was right there were a lot of light, lights that blinded my eyes, I'll admit that they were somewhat beautiful. For some reason before the trip, I thought that New York was going to be peaceful, no New York was incredibly loud that I couldn't hear my sister and she was nose to nose to me, maybe I'm over exaggerating although that's how I felt! We crossed the street trying not to get hit by all these bright yellow cabs and into broadway, where I have seen a middle aged man wearing a green coat and had 3 kittens in front of him. 2 were black, black as the lead could be, and 1 was white, white as fresh snow on a winters day. He had them in a straight line performing simple tricks. I knew he was doing that for money therefore I gave him 5 dollars. I turned around and a whiff of sweat, car gas, and hot dogs hit me, that smell I will never forget. I stepped on the side walk singing Miley Cyrus's song Party in the USA in my head, while looking at the ground. I really didn't want to make eye contact with anyone. Then suddenly out of no where I saw a black ball moving on the pavement and into the sewer, my mom shouted "rat! rat!" and to be honest I was pretty embarrassed because everyone was looking at her, at us! I just backed up into the wall pretending to tie my shoe lace. The clock said 11:00, it was getting late and we were all very tired. My feet were hurting and it was getting chilly, it was time to head back to the hotel. We walked to the subway station where we got on the next subway to our bus stop, this time when we got on the bus there were empty seats. I quickly sat on a seat beside my aunt. In 15 minutes we arrived to our next bus stop. Our bus was a little late and we had to wait under this green bus stop in the cold dark. We waited for about 20 minutes before our bus arrived. Finally. I hopped on the bus and only 3 people were on which meant there were a lot of seat unoccupied. I sat next to the window where I had fallen asleep to the sight of the moon.

" What do you mean this is the last stop?", I heard my aunt say. I awoken to the sight of the adults yelling at the bus driver. I looked outside and our hotel was no where in sight. We were all getting scared, here we are tourists from Canada stranded in the middle of the night in New York, lost. 12:30, well good morning? We all got out of the bus, and went inside this building which turned to be an exclusive hotel. We told the security guard what had happened to us, how we apparently took the wrong bus and we were all tourist well not including my aunt. He was very nice and called us 2 taxis. We waited for 15 long minutes. Suddenly 2 black SUV's pulled up, the drivers both had ear pieces on and both were huge, like muscular huge. They drove us back to the hotel where we paid them a fair amount. I quickly headed upstairs where I told my mom " I am never coming back here ever again" and went to bed.

I soon realize all my expectations and all my hopes about New York were somewhat false and inaccurate . Maybe Times Square is a place for other people who enjoy being on their feet, as for me though, I don't think Times Square is a place for me, maybe Hawaii?